Zotac GeForce GTX 770 2GB $300 vs. EVGA/Gigabyte GTX 760 OC 2GB $250

[leftisthominid]

I am comparing this Zotac GTX 770 2GB card (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D2OYUDE) for $300 to the EVGA and Gigabyte overlocked GTX 760 2GB cards (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DGM8B6O, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DHW4HXY) for $250-260.

$300 is the max I can spend on graphics card, so Zotac is the only brand I can afford for the 770. I was wondering if the $40-50 difference worth the increased performance and the decreased brand-quality?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($116.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($84.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Rosewill R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $49.99)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $49.99)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $16.99)
Total: $708.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-30 17:17 EST-0500)

 

[senkasaw]

Go with the 770. Zotac is just fine. I believe it is totally worth the extra...770 is a great card!

 

[apcs13]

The 770 wipes the floor with the 760 in most cases, the 760 is better than the 660 but a little worse than the 670, and the 770 is a little better than a 680, so the difference is pretty major and for sure worth the extra $50.

 

[leftisthominid]

The 770 wipes the floor with the 760 in most cases, the 760 is better than the 660 but a little worse than the 670, and the 770 is a little better than a 680, so the difference is pretty major and for sure worth the extra $50.

Even though it is a lesser brand? Also, (on a slightly tangential matter) do you think my 550W PSU will be enough for the card?

 

[senkasaw]

zotac is fine. nothing wrong with zotac.

EDIT: and according to nvidia the minimum wattage is 600 for the 770

 

[leftisthominid]

zotac is fine. nothing wrong with zotac.

EDIT: and according to nvidia the minimum wattage is 600 for the 770

Unfortunately, I am not in the position to swap my PSU. I've read some people say it will be fine, and others say it won't be, so I am trying to get as many opinions are possible.

 

[senkasaw]

It MIGHT be ok...what model of psu is it? And what does the rest of your system look like?

 

[leftisthominid]

It MIGHT be ok...what model of psu is it? And what does the rest of your system look like?

Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $49.99)
(the rest of my planned build is in the original post)

 

[senkasaw]

(the rest of my planned build is in the original post)

duh...my bad

Yeah, you are probably not ok with that power supply for a 770. Should be ok for a 760 though.

Edit: Doesn't mean it wouldnt work, but if it does, you may (likely) get inconsistent performance from it.

 

[leftisthominid]

(the rest of my planned build is in the original post)

duh...my bad

Yeah, you are probably not ok with that power supply for a 770. Should be ok for a 760 though.

Edit: Doesn't mean it wouldnt work, but if it does, you may (likely) get inconsistent performance from it.

From what I am reading in the other threads on the matter is that the PSU experts say so long as I don't OC it should be fine. I am not building until March, so I suppose I have a month to mull it over.

 

[apcs13]

The 770 wipes the floor with the 760 in most cases, the 760 is better than the 660 but a little worse than the 670, and the 770 is a little better than a 680, so the difference is pretty major and for sure worth the extra $50.

Even though it is a lesser brand? Also, (on a slightly tangential matter) do you think my 550W PSU will be enough for the card?

There is nothing wrong with Zotac, they are a decent brand and you should definitely go for the 770 , it's more worth it in the future. As for the power supply concerns, if you are worried about it not being enough you could always enable power saving features and the likes, but that might be a hit in games. However, a 770 with power saving is still a lot better than a 760 on full turbo mode. I would recommend that you upgrade that power supply though, as you would have better results and better peace of mind with a higher wattage power supply, and besides, you can sell your power supply if you already bought it and use that money to help cover a higher wattage power supply, my TX-650 more than covers a FX-6350 OC'd to 4.4 GHz alongside a GTX 770, and that was OC'd to 1300 MHz at one point on core, and 7.2 GHz effective memory (not anymore, I had a few random issues in a few select games, and since going back to stock clock speeds they haven't happened again, and OC-ing from stock OC clock to 1293 did nothing for me). Besides, if you get the 770 and a better PSU, you will enjoy yourself a lot more with your system, and it would be worth it.

 

[senkasaw]

Yeah, you might be fine. If it was a higher quality PSU I would have more confidence in that though...

Personally, I wouldn't go with the 770 unless upgrading the psu was an option. Way to iffy for me.

 

[senkasaw]

The 770 wipes the floor with the 760 in most cases, the 760 is better than the 660 but a little worse than the 670, and the 770 is a little better than a 680, so the difference is pretty major and for sure worth the extra $50.

Even though it is a lesser brand? Also, (on a slightly tangential matter) do you think my 550W PSU will be enough for the card?

There is nothing wrong with Zotac, they are a decent brand and you should definitely go for the 770 , it's more worth it in the future. As for the power supply concerns, if you are worried about it not being enough you could always enable power saving features and the likes, but that might be a hit in games. However, a 770 with power saving is still a lot better than a 760 on full turbo mode. I would recommend that you upgrade that power supply though, as you would have better results and better peace of mind with a higher wattage power supply, and besides, you can sell your power supply if you already bought it and use that money to help cover a higher wattage power supply, my TX-650 more than covers a FX-6350 OC'd to 4.4 GHz alongside a GTX 770, and that was OC'd to 1300 MHz at one point on core, and 7.2 GHz effective memory (not anymore, I had a few random issues in a few select games, and since going back to stock clock speeds they haven't happened again, and OC-ing from stock OC clock to 1293 did nothing for me). Besides, if you get the 770 and a better PSU, you will enjoy yourself a lot more with your system, and it would be worth it.

I like this recommendation...sometimes trying to sell things can be a pain, but in this case I think it would be worth it.

 

[leftisthominid]

I ordered the Rosewill Hive 550W a couple weeks ago since it is a Tier 2a PSU according to Newegg (http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx) and I thought the GTX 770 was financially out of reach (and other than this temporarily discounted Zotac they are).

I have a $700 budget that I could extend to $750 for a GTX 770, but extending it further to trade in a PSU would break the bank.

 

[senkasaw]

Well you have a tough choice. That is a killer deal on a 770...

You can try running it on the 550watt psu...but it would be better to try to recoup the cost of that psu and find something with a little more power. I have seen deals on 600w psu's for just a bit more (like only $10 more or so) than your 550 cost...just gotta look around and you might get lucky.

Up to you I guess...I would still not recommend trying to use the 770 on the 550 rosewill psu.

EDIT: here is an example...pretty close in cost: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096
Still may not be cheap enough for you, but that was with 2 minutes of searching...

'nother! :http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Builder-Series-Watt-CX600/dp/B0092ML0OC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391124534&sr=8-1&keywords=power+supply this one is a pretty good deal.

 

[ERIC J]

The 770 wipes the floor with the 760 in most cases, the 760 is better than the 660 but a little worse than the 670, and the 770 is a little better than a 680, so the difference is pretty major and for sure worth the extra $50.

Even though it is a lesser brand? Also, (on a slightly tangential matter) do you think my 550W PSU will be enough for the card?

ZOTAC makes killer cards but they just are not that well known,
I am buying their GTX780 amp which is the fastest 780 out.
i have not read or heard one single negative thing about ZOTAC except they are not as known.